


Space Blooms Beneath You

by twinklingpaopufruit



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Canon Compliant, First Kiss, Fluff, Idol Verse, Implied Soonhoon, M/M, Magical Realism, comfort only - Freeform, non-au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:14:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27731383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twinklingpaopufruit/pseuds/twinklingpaopufruit
Summary: Mingyu doesn't know why in between schedules and promotions he and Minghao keep having the same dreams.
Relationships: Kim Mingyu/Xu Ming Hao | The8
Comments: 13
Kudos: 103





	Space Blooms Beneath You

Mingyu sits on an old wooden bench. Weeds and overgrown grass sweep against his calves. Orange chrysanthemums spring from beneath the ground and cover the entire field. Mingyu knocks his legs and feet together to avoid crushing them. He drops his head back against the bench and focuses his gaze on the sky. The red leaves from the giant maple tree beside him are impossibly still as the branches nearly touch the stars. 

The stars are closer than usual. Mingyu stretches his arm up to the sky, and his gasp resonates loudly in a breathy rough sound. 

He’s wearing a spacesuit. 

Why is he in space? His breathing is louder as he looks around. Several miles away, he can see the familiar dot of Earth—an image he has only ever familiarized himself with on TV and in books. 

He sags against the bench. His breath is the only sound he hears for several minutes as he looks across the field of flowers that blends seamlessly into the blackest color he has ever seen. 

Then, the soft buzz of wings comes from his right. He looks over and sees a green and red hummingbird flying toward him.

Oh.

He must be dreaming.

Suddenly, he hears the grass crunch, and Mingyu shifts his gaze to the right.

Minghao, wearing dark brown pants and a creamy colored cardigan, stands in front of him.

It’s the least strange thing in all this. He’s dreamed of the members before.

Minghao steps forward. His feet are bare as they press gently against the plants. His friend stops until their knees knock together.

Minghao meets his gaze with a deadpan expression and asks, “How did you get here?”

Mingyu’s eyes open, and he immediately sees Wonwoo sleeping over on the opposite bed. Mingyu groans and rubs at his bed head as he sits up. Okay, that was a weird dream. He kicks his legs off the bed. 

The door opens.

Mingyu grunts as the light from the hallway pierce inside their room.

“Mingyu,” Their manager says softly. “Schedules.”

Mingyu yawns big and wide. He must say something because the manager thanks him and goes to a different room. He shuffles over to Wonwoo’s bed and shakes his shoulder. Wonwoo’s head lifts then drops back onto the pillow, and he groans. Mingyu feels the exact same way. 

All of them are exhausted.

They haven’t really gotten a break this entire year.

He gets it, though. They need to make up for the loss of profits over the dozens of canceled concerts. 

Somehow, he ends up in the kitchen first, ready before anyone else. 

He munches on some sugary cereal that Joshua likes to buy and waits for the other members. Minghao appears first. He stops at the end of the room and watches Mingyu with wide eyes. 

Mingyu is brought back to his dream.

“You’re up early,” Minghao says, finally coming forward. His face scrunches as he looks at Mingyu’s cereal piled up on a napkin. 

“I had a strange dream,” Mingyu replies.

“Oh?”

Mingyu hums. He watches Minghao deftly move through the kitchen, preparing some water to boil—tea for himself—and coffee for probably Seungcheol and Wonwoo. 

He doesn’t get to recount it. Seungcheol appears next and collapses on the seat next to Mingyu. Mingyu giggles and reaches over for his leader. They hug each other in a loose embrace. It’s so warm. His eyes begin to drift close, and he sees Minghao smile. A hand comes to the back of his neck, and it rubs there for a few seconds.

Mingyu falls asleep sitting up.

When he comes to again, he’s in a car with Wonwoo happily singing along to whatever song is playing on the car radio. 

  
  


Mingyu stands on the edge of a planet? Moon? Asteroid? He doesn’t know. 

He’s in his spacesuit again. It’s lighter than he expects. He can freely walk in it—none of the fun jumping he’s seen from space movies. His feet drag through the fields of orange chrysanthemums. The scene is quite lovely now that he takes in the sight of the orange flowers against the black sky.

He walks endlessly until he comes to a dock. The wooden board is suspended in midair as Minghao sits on the edge. There’s a basket of spheres next to him that look like mini planets. There’s one hooked on the end of his fishing line.

He approaches, and his space suit thunks loudly against the wood. 

Minghao looks over his shoulder. His friend stares. Mingyu’s breath echoes harshly inside his suit. Minghao smiles and turns back to the endless black sky. His bare feet swing back and forth as he says, “I was supposed to fish with dad, but you’ll do.”

Mingyu asks, “Your dad or my dad?”

“Our dad.”

He chuckles, “Is that what he told you to call him?”

“Hmmm. C’mon, you’ll do. Help me.”

There’s a second fishing rod next to him. Mingyu sits beside him and reaches inside Minghao’s basket. He holds Mars in the palm of his hand. He hooks it at the end and swings the rod out.

“What are we fishing for?” Mingyu asks, breaking the long silence. 

Minghao doesn’t respond for a long time. Then the line gets pulled taut. Minghao laughs. He stands to his feet and starts to pull the string. Mingyu doesn’t know what he caught, but he’s cheering for him. A large wonderful gasp escapes past Minghao’s lips. He holds the string between them. “Stars,” Minghao finally answers.

The light illuminates his entire face, and Mingyu can’t breathe. His suit beeps that he’s run out of oxygen.

Mingyu wakes up gasping for air. When he comes to his senses and realizes that he’s in bed, he sinks against the mattress and pulls his covers over his head. The image of Minghao’s face warmly lit by the star is still freshly implanted in his mind. 

Mingyu is wearing a thick coat, a baseball cap, and a facemask. He blends in with the staff and crew as they film Minghao’s solo dance for his next youtube art piece. Mingyu goes to sit in a foldable chair with a warm drink in his hand. He decided early that morning, he would join Minghao on his schedules. His friend had looked at him oddly when he had told him rather than asked but shrugged in agreement.

Mingyu watches in fascination the way Minghao’s body moves. The green silk flows weightless in the air as Minghao spins and dances. It’s hypnotizing. 

He wants to watch Minghao dance for hours. 

  
  


The orange chrysanthemums are on either side of him. He’s in space, but they’re floating somewhere different. He turns around and covers the shield of his helmet as the intensity of the sun blinds him.

He takes several steps back and gasps as he sinks and keeps sinking. He’s drowning in some sort of river, and the spacesuit is too heavy in the water for him to swim safely and break the water. Mingyu breaths heavily as he kicks his arms and legs. 

The light is shining above him—so far out of reach. 

By chance, he sees two feet at the edge of the water. He calls out a name.

A hand breaches the water...

And he wakes up. 

  
  


Mingyu is tired. So goddamn tired. Their Home Run schedules feel even more exhausting than their pre-pandemic comebacks. The entire group is sitting backstage, touching up their hair and makeup. They’ve been working on hours filming their music showcase, and everyone’s moods are turning sour the longer they are there. Of course, everyone is excited and grateful to share this with their fans...but a break would be nice.

Mingyu can see Seungkwan and Soonyoung arguing. It’s missing it’s playful bite—a testament to everyone’s short tempers from lack of sleep. Mingyu’s stressed from the sound of their voices. So he takes a deep breath and does his best to calm everyone down and make the room light. It works. Jeonghan catches on to what he’s doing first and uses Seungcheol and Jun to help him out. Mingyu’s grateful, but the stress still weighs heavily on his shoulders. He doesn’t let anyone see it. 

He returns back to the dorm. Wonwoo heads to Seungcheol’s room to play video games and destress. Joshua goes silently to his own room, and so does Minghao.

Mingyu feels too exhausted to deal with anyone as well. He goes to his room. As soon as the door clicks behind him, the heaviness draped over his shoulders makes it hard to breathe. His fingers itch to be doing something. Mingyu glances around the room. He spots scattered clothes and goes to tidy up the room.

Usually, it calms it right now. But today, the stress is settled deep inside him. It’s a nasty feeling that when the door opens, a curse is ready to fall out of his mouth. However, when he sees Minghao’s face staring back at him—he freezes. 

Minghao pushes his way inside. He’s in his pajamas, and his phone is held tightly in his hand. 

“Hey,” Minghao says slowly.

“What’s up?” 

“I just wanted to see if you had time to help me?”

Mingyu pouts and turns away from Minghao. Minghao purposefully ignores him and climbs into his bed with a smile. He shamelessly pats the bed beside him. Mingyu pushes his lower lip even further, but he begrudgingly climbs into bed.

“I wanted to post some photos on weverse,” Minghao remarks. “But I wanted your opinion.”

“I want to sleep,” he tells him instead.

Minghao chuckles and goes into his phone’s album. “If you did, you would be sleeping already. You were up cleaning, weren’t you?”

“No,” he replies stubbornly.

Minghao shoots him a smile. “Please?” Minghao bats his eyes.

Mingyu scrunches his face and shoves Minghao toward the wall. “Don’t do that.”

Minghao giggles are nice and breathy. “It will calm you down, c’mon.”

Mingyu wants to ask him how he knew he was upset, but it’s a dumb question. Minghao always knows when he needs him most.

They curve into each other over Minghao’s small phone screen, playing with the contrast and saturation settings. It takes three minutes for Mingyu to huff out the useless basic settings and goes for his laptop.

“Airdrop them for me,” Mingyu says.

Minghao does, and together they spend the night merging their two favorite hobbies: editing and photography. Each moment that passes, Mingyu feels the nastiness in his chest escape from his throat, and he finds himself able to swim and breathe. 

  
  


Mingyu looks down at his spacesuit covered feet as he walks across a road so far up in the sky. Normally, he would be screaming, but the novelty of walking on Saturn’s outer ring stops him from sinking to hands and feet. It seems that he’s been walking for hours over the yellow and striped orange ring. 

He only stops when he spots Minghao walking in the opposite direction on the inner ring.

He calls for his name. Minghao turns to look at him, and even from a distance, he can see Minghao smile. 

  
  


Mingyu is not pouting. He’s not. He just doesn’t understand why Soonyoung won’t just give him the leftovers. He’s currently upstairs with the other dorm members because he had been invited by Jeonghan for some dinner. 

He’s still hungry, though, and wants to eat what’s left in the pot. Soonyoung absolutely refuses to budge. 

“They’re for Jihoon,” Soonyoung explains. “Don’t you save food for Myungho when he does his own schedules and comes home late?”

What do those two things even have in common? Mingyu can’t even ponder the question for too long because the front door opens. The entire group looks curiously over and watches on as Minghao enters the room with a giant white styrofoam box. 

“They messed up our order and got us the spicy noodles instead,” Minghao tells them, setting the box in front of Mingyu. “Seungcheol can’t eat them, so I brought them to you.”

Mingyu’s eyes light up, and he pops open the box. He mutters thanks around a giant mouthful of food. Minghao sits beside him. He leans against his hand and watches him with a large smile. Heat floods Mingyu’s cheeks, and he knows it’s more than the spicy food in his mouth.

The others watch on with hidden smiles and leave the two alone at the kitchen table. 

  
  


Mingyu stands in the middle of the field of orange chrysanthemums. Minghao is standing several feet away. His...friend is staring up at the stars. Pluto floats above them. Minghao’s image is seared and reflected on Mingyu’s helmet like a painting. Mingyu doesn’t want to disturb Minghao this time. He wants to keep this image here forever. 

But, Minghao turns around. He tucks a long piece of his hair behind his ear and smiles softly. Minghao walks to him and sits down cross-legged in front of him. Mingyu sits across from him and mimics his stance. 

“Give me your palms,” Minghao asks.

Mingyu looks down at his gray suit. “Umm.”

Minghao smiles, “I’ll show you mine then.”

He places his palms on Mingyu’s thighs and shows him each line. Mingyu watches enraptured as Minghao points to every single crease and tells him about his future. Mingyu has heard all of this before. He can recount all of Minghao’s dreams and aspirations. 

  
  


Mingyu knows that Minghao is stressed when he’s invited to his room to drink some wine. He can tell when Minghao tips from buzzed to drunk when he reaches for his hand and won’t let go. 

They’re sitting side by side on his bed. Minghao is tucked in Mingyu’s shoulders, rambling about one thing or another. Mingyu struggles to narrow his focus on the conversation when Minghao’s thumb keeps stroking over his hand. It takes him a second too long to realize Minghao stops talking, but when he does, Minghao brings both hands up to his lips. He kisses the back of Mingyu’s hand.

Mingyu can’t do anything but blush. 

His brain immediately reminds him of all the dreams he’s been having over Minghao. Because of them, this feels so much more different. So much more real.

Minghao doesn’t notice his crisis. He mumbles, “I want you to live with me.”

“What?” Mingyu gasps out as Minghao’s lips graze over each knuckle.

“When I get my house on the beach. I want it to be  _ ours _ .”

Mingyu gulps. “Okay.”

  
  


Mingyu is looking up at space and the brilliant stars overhead. He’s lying down on a bed of flowers. There’s so many that the grass isn’t even peeking through them. The stars and faraway galaxies are imprinted over his helmet as he holds hands with Minghao. 

“Do you want to know a secret?” Minghao asks. “A secret that you already know?” 

“If I already know it, is it really a secret?”

Hao smiles, “Fine. I won’t remind you then.”

“Tell me.”

_ “I love you.” _

Mingyu gasps. His helmet cracks. It starts with one single line, but then it spreads and spreads, and flowers are pushing from within his helmet and pushing away the glass. The flowers spread to his neck and over his eyes as they push away his helmet. The flowers keep spreading, and they sneak under his suit. They stretch through the seams and rip his suit. He’s left in faded blue jeans and a black t-shirt.

Minghao giggles. He rolls over and presses against his chest. He looks up at him, “I’ve been waiting for you,” Minghao sighs.

Mingyu breathes deeply and runs his fingers through Minghao’s hair. Minghao sighs again, and his eyes flutter shut. “Have you been waiting long?”

“Not really, same time as when you started loving me.”

Mingyu wakes up. He realizes sadly that he had fallen asleep in Minghao’s room. The empty wine bottle is still on Minghao’s nightstand beside his clock. They still have an hour before their manager is sure to pick them up.

He ponders the dream as Minghao snores softly on his chest. Surely, it was just a dream. He loves Minghao...but…

“...When you started loving me,” Minghao mumbles.

“What?” Mingyu gasps.

He reaches out, and Minghao wakes up with a start. Have they been having the same dreams this entire time? That’s ridiculous...impossible even. 

“Sorry,” Minghao presses his palm to the center of his chest to sit up. “Did we fall asleep?”

_ Have they been having the same dreams? _

“Yeah...have you…have you been dreaming?”

Minghao locks eyes with him and then slowly answers, “Yeah, I just woke up.”

“About outer space?”

Minghao stares back at him with wide eyes. “I thought they were just dreams.”

“Me too,” Mingyu replies. He remembers their conversation before the dream. “Did you mean it? That you want me to live with you?” He focuses on that question instead of the one they declared to each other under the stars. He doesn’t need to question that. He knows Minghao loves him.

Minghao blinks and then says, “Yes.”

“Okay, then.”

He reaches forward and bridges the gap between friendship and love. At the first touch of lips, everything feels so right. Then, it just gets better and better. 

But, they’re too tired to keep going. They know whatever has just sprouted will be fresh and young for them to pick up tomorrow.

Their eyes shut, and they dream.

They swing back and forth with a flimsy wooden board beneath them and two ropes attached to Jupiter’s red mark. Minghao keeps his hold nice and steady around his shoulders as Mingyu softly snoozes on his shoulder.

It’s their last dream together, but it’s okay; they have plenty of dreams to fulfill ahead of them. 

**Author's Note:**

> This work was inspired by the following photos. [photos](https://www.instagram.com/nicebleed/)
> 
> Follow me on twitter [twinklingpaopu](https://twitter.com/twinklingpaopu)


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